


Fascination

by cheinsaw



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Awkward Flirting, F/F, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 21:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10648128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheinsaw/pseuds/cheinsaw
Summary: Kaede plays piano at a bar. Maki waits for her mark.(it's my birthday and i'll write shameless self-indulgent aus if i want to)





	Fascination

**Author's Note:**

> cheinsaw: kaede being a piano instructor and idk how she meets maki because maki is a deep web hitman but gay motorcycle rides  
> fearandloathinginheaven: they meet at a bar where kaede is playing piano and maki is waiting for her target and they flirt like all night  
> cheinsaw: ohHHHHJ

It doesn't pay much, but it's better than nothing, Kaede thinks as she settles at the piano in the lounge at exactly five o'clock on Friday evening. The bar is mostly empty at the moment, just the few early birds fresh from their office jobs and the bartender idly cleaning glasses that don't need it. The crowd will trickle in later in the evening, Kaede's sure—the sun's not even down yet.

At two minutes past five Kaede rolls up the sleeves of her button-down, straightens her back, and places her hands on the piano keys. She's starting off with Mozart tonight, one of the symphonies. The bar area is dimly lit in soft golden light, but she's used to playing by touch, by heart.

Kaede is a piano instructor by day. She's not sure how well her enthusiasm reaches her students, usually rich kids whose parents are starting them way too early on filling up space on their college applications. But she's a good teacher, she'd like to think, and at the end of the day it's something to do while she waits for her shifts to start at the bar and lounge. Which isn't a bad job either. She gets to dress pretty and play what she likes, and sometimes tipsy men twice her age hit on her, but she just smiles and hopes they go away. It's not like the manager would let anything bad happen to her. And mostly, she's left alone other than tips and requests, and that's alright with her.

 

By seven the bar is filling up. By eight it's roaring. Kaede plays on.

Kaede looks up briefly between songs, and immediately ducks her head back down. From all the way across the bar is a woman, dressed in black and long dark hair tied up in red ribbons, staring straight at Kaede.

She looks away as soon as Kaede's eyes meet hers, ducking back down towards the drink she's nursing. Kaede wonders if she's on a bad date, or if she's alone, or if she's just distracted. It could be any of those things. Kaede learned early on to not get too concerned about each customer's life; there are far too many to worry about each of them. But this girl is _pretty_ , god help Kaede, and something about her sticks in Kaede's mind.

Perhaps tonight will be something special.

 

When Kaede is finishing up her rendition of the Turkish March, fast and lively, she notes a flurry of black and red at the corner of her eye. Something in her heart swells as she plays the final note, then sits up straight to see her visitor. Just as she thought, it's the woman. Up close, Kaede can see she's much younger than she'd looked from across the bar, probably around the same age as Kaede. But her eyes are darkened, as if she lives in a different world.

"I have a request," she says.

"Sure!" Kaede smiles up at her. Usually she prefers requests to be written down, so she doesn't forget about them, but she'll make an exception.

It's a pop song from twenty-five years ago, but Kaede knows it well. "Coming right up," she says, and the girl nods, thanks her softly, and ghosts away.

 

Ten minutes later, Kaede takes another short break to drink some water. When she returns, the dark-haired woman is leaning on the wall near the piano. She glances at Kaede for a second, but says nothing. Kaede sits down again and stretches her wrists. "Can I help you?" she asks.

The woman looks at her, half-bored, half-intrigued. "You play beautifully," she says, instead of answering the question.

"Thank you!" Kaede beams. "Are you waiting for someone?"

"...Sort of."

"Oh, is it a date?"

She wrinkles her nose, and it's somehow cute. "Jesus, no."

"Ah, sorry! If you have any more requests I'm here all night."

The girl acknowledges this with a small bow of her head, then disappears back into the bar area. She looks so cool, Kaede thinks. It's like she belongs to some dark underworld that Kaede will never touch, and her presence here is just the slightest brush of the two worlds meeting. And that is all Kaede will ever get.

 

By ten the girl has come and gone at least three more times, making curt, choppy small talk that goes nowhere, but Kaede appreciates it anyway.

"I'm Maki," she says eventually. "Sorry I keep bothering you."

"Oh, no, it's fine! I'd rather have you than some drunk guy," Kaede laughs, realizing halfway through the sentence how awkward and wrong it sounds. "I mean! You're not bothering me at all. Um. My name's Kaede."

"I know. You're on the menu."

"I am," Kaede smiles. This isn't the first time someone has made the joke, that on the menu's front page it reads _With live music by Kaede Akamatsu on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, & Sundays_, but coming from another girl it seems a lot less... predatory. Maki has not once looked at her as if she's a piece of meat or a bottle of beer, and she's grateful.

 

"He still hasn't shown up?" Kaede asks when Maki circles back around to the piano around eleven.

Maki puffs up her cheeks. "He isn't expecting me. I just wanted to try to catch him here."

"I'd buy you a drink if I could. It must be rough having to wait all this time by yourself."

"You don't have to. It's fine."

"I can't either way... Do you have any more requests?"

"Just play what you want. I'm fine."

So Kaede plays on once more.

 

Just before midnight, when Kaede's shift ends, Maki returns. "I have to go now," she says. "Have a good night."

"It's been really nice talking to you," Kaede says, and she means it.

Maki nods. "I'll see you around."

She quickly, unceremoniously shoves something into Kaede's tip jar, then turns on her heel, dark hair fluttering behind her as she walks off briskly. Slightly confused, Kaede peers up at it, then decides she doesn't want to wait to look. Inside is a twenty and a small folded-over piece of paper with a neatly written phone number and the name _Maki_.

Kaede inhales sharply. She was right. Tonight is something special after all.

(For now, she would like to sleep. But the intrigue is there, and her heart is soaring at the chance to talk to Maki again. In the morning, when things are bright.)


End file.
